T5 to LED acclimation

So I am going to be changing my lights from t5 to LED within the next week or so and I am not sure what I need to do for acclimating my coral and new RBTA to the new lighting.

Right now i have 4 ati t5s which are on the old side, 9 months, and instead of buying new bulbs, again, I talked my wife into getting LEDs. With a lot of research and some very much appreciated help from Mike at RapidLED, I have a cart full of crap that should give me better light than I would have with new T5s.

My problem is I have never switched lighting so I am not sure if i should reduce time the lights run or dim them and ramp up over time or both. I just got this RBTA added into the system yesterday and I am not sure if that will change the acclimation to the lights or not. The last thing I want is to stress out my livestock and lose something in the transfer.

I appreciate any advice and thanks in advance.

 

bump

 

No advice on acclimating a new nem with new lights?

 

You can definitely be safe with

1. Keeping the fixture dialed down if possible.
2. Elevate the fixture if possible.
3. Reduce photoperiod.
4 Provide some shading if appropriate. Screening if needed.

Since I have not acclimated corals to LED's prior I am not speaking from 1st hand knowledge. What I do know is that it needs to be a fairly slow process over the course of weeks. Corals can look fine for days and then on day 4 you look at them and wonder how they bleached or burned so fast.

Hobbyist often post that they underestimated the strength of the LED fixture.

HTH.

 

Cheryl summed it up. Lower the intensity using the fixture or height. Increase very slowly over the course of a few weeks. Don't go too high either. Find the sweet spot and keep it there

 

The fixture is DIY and I will be able to dial it down to 5%.

How do you know once you have found the "sweet spot"?

Right now my photo period is 10 hours, So If i cut that to 8 what would be a good starting point for % of intensity? 25%?

 

Also, out of the 8 hour photoperiod. the new fixture will have 2 hour ramp up and down during that 8 hours.

 

Once your corals are growing nicely, show good PE, and have good coloring. Don't increase once you get there, as you will end up bleaching.

Yes, that sounds good. That is what I did when I switched from PC to LEDs on my JBJ 28.

 

When you find this sweet spot on the intensity at that point could i try to increase the photoperiod back to 10 hours or should i work on the photoperiod first then fiddle with intensity?

 

I would do intensity than photoperiod. Once your corals are tolerating the intensity of the LEDs without bleaching or melting than I would increase the photoperiod and once the corals look to be tolerating that I would slowly ramp up the intensity.